Gardeners pie with lentils & Bacon

This was a winner tonight! So comforting too, perfect for this snowy weather! Full of goodness, lentil and lots and lots of veg but the winner was the smoky bacon!! Kids were won over with that!!! Alfie absolutely gobbled this up and Maisie ate all hers too…I have to say I went in for seconds!!!!

Inspired by a recipe I found in this magazine called FeelGoodFood. I’ve changed it a little but it’s fairy true to the original recipe. I’ve used a skillet style pan which means this can go straight from hob to oven. If you don’t have an oven proof pan then simply fry this up and then before topping with mash simply transfer the filling into an oven proof dish. A pyrex dish or something would work fine!

So after you have preheated your oven you can start by sweating off your onion in a little oil.

Next you add your bacon pieces and the crushed garlic and cook gently…

After a few minutes add the veg, so the carrots, celery, parsnips and mushrooms.

Then in goes the oregano and the sun-dried tomato paste…

Stir that all in……

and then add your lentils. I used a merchant gourmet pouch which i think are really good but any puy lentils would do the job!

and then finally add your stock. Bring this up to a gentle simmer for around 20 mins with the lid off so as to reduce the sauce. Once the liquid has evaporated and the veg is tender you can then start to top your pie!

I’ve used a mix of sweet potato and Maris Piper mash for this, of course you could use just Maris Piper, just sweet or mix then properly together before topping but i quite like the different colours on top of this one! Top with cheese and then it’s finally ready for the oven…pop it into a preheated oven for around 25 minutes or until the cheese has browned. You can make this all up in advance and leave it in the fridge or even pop into the freezer and then when you’re ready to eat simply pop it into the oven!

…and that’s it!

It’s really tasty and it’s pretty straight forward! If you make a big batch you can freeze this for a later date! Make once eat twice! So anyway just to recap here’s the what and how!

What you’ll need:

Mash potato from both sweet potatoes and maris piper potatoes. Around 4 large-ish potatoes of each. Boiled and then mashed with a some butter and a little milk for the maris piper mash to make this slightly creamier.

3 carrots – diced

2 Parnips – diced

2 celery stalks – finely chopped

Handful of chestnut mushrooms – chopped

5/6 rashers of smoked bacon – chopped into pieces

1 onion – finely diced

2 garlic cloves – crushed

1 packet merchant gourmet puy lentils

800ml Vegetable stock

2 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste

1 tsp of oregano

What you’ll need to do:

Preheat your oven to 180C

Start by softening your onion in a pan with a little oil. I’ve used a skillet style pan so this can go from hob to oven!

Next add your bacon pieces and the garlic. Cook for a few minutes.

Now you need to add your veg so in goes the celery, carrots, parsnips and mushrooms. Cook these for a few minutes.

Next add the oregano, the sun-dried tomato paste and your puy lentils.

Stir this through and then finally add your stock.

Bring to a simmer and then gently cook with the lid off for around 20 minutes or so or until the veg has softened and the liquid has evaporated and turned into a thicker sauce.

Now it’s time to top your pie with your mash. I arranged mine with a mix of sweet potato and Maris piper mash. One big scoop of sweet, then a scoop of maris piper next to it and then sweet and so on all the way around the pie. Smooth off with a knife or the back of a spoon.

Then decorate with a fork, making lines all the way around the edge and then curling in until you get to the centre.

Finally top with some dairy free cheese or some cheddar and then pop into the oven at 180C for 25/30 minutes or until the cheese is melting and turning golden.